Title: Odd Ideas and Plot Bunnies

Author: TardisIsTheOnlyWaytoTravel

What's this all about?

I get fanfiction ideas. Lots of them. Some of them are terrific, but often only a tiny fraction of them gets written, barely enough to make enough a chapter at times. But they're worth sharing, if only to give others inspiration. So here there are, each idea with its own chapter. You're welcome to borrow. Just give me credit for inspiration in your fic, that's all I ask.

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Plot Bunny:

Harry was thrown is Azkaban for killing Ginny. Now he's out, declared innocent. With the help of Snape and Harry's mysterious friend, the now-cynical Slytherin Harry's going to make sure that life goes his way for once.

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Harry stared dully at them all. He had been silenced for trying to speak his innocence. Now he sat in the dock, as the cold, hard truth sank into his bones, as he saw the cold faces looking back at him. Faintly he could hear Fudge triumphantly announcing a guilty verdict, but he was barely aware of it; all he knew was that his friends, the people he considered family, had turned against him, condemned him, without giving him any chance to prove his innocence.

He hadn't killed Ginny. He hadn't. He didn't even know what had happened, no one had told him. He'd been seized by the Ministry and thrown in a holding cell, and when he was dragged in chains to the courtroom instead of helping him, as he had expected, everyone he knew and loved had stared at him stonily. One by one they got up and betrayed him, even Ron and Hermione testifying against him. Ron and Hermione, the two people he cared most for in the world. Something inside him broke, and was quickly consumed by an all-pervading coldness that spread outwards from the centre of his soul. Now, as he was dragged away, the green eyes lifted, looking dead and lifeless in the narrow face.

For one, fleeting moment, Harry's eyes met Snape's; the latter's held some indefinable gleam that sparked something before all emotions died once more. The Potions professor suppressed the urge to shudder as the piercing, otherworldly eyes looked at him dully.

'I shall never trust again,' the boy mouthed. An instant later the moment was broken as the boy was hustled from the room.

But Snape was haunted by those green eyes, and the despairing understanding he had seen.

Harry turned his head slightly as the hinges of the cell door squealed in protest, expecting to see either one of the aurors that patrolled the prison, or Nerida, on one of her periodic visits.

Instead, he was shocked to see, out of the corner of his eye, none other than Albus Dumbledore and Remus Lupin.

"Harry, my boy," Dumbledore said gravely. Harry turned his head to stare at him blankly, keeping all signs of comprehension from his face. What the devil were these bastards doing here?

In all his time at Azkaban, Harry had never gone insane, although at times it was a close call. It was his innocence, he supposed. No one knew this, however. They all thought him insane, all but Nerida. No one bothered with the insane, even if they were the infamous Harry Potter.

He continued his charade now as the two men looked at him sadly. Remus blanched as he got a good look at Harry, emaciated and clad in tattered, damp robes, hair a mass of snarls and eyes empty, but the only indication that Dumbledore had noticed his state was the increase of gravity in the blue eyes.

"We're here to take you home, Harry," Dumbledore said softly. Remus didn't look as though he were capable of speech, staring at Harry. "You've been pardoned. The ministry has discovered that you were innocent of the murder of Ginny Weasley."

Harry just stared at him.

When Dumbledore sighed and moved forward to help him up, Harry shrank back into the corner.

"Harry, it's us," Remus said shakily, putting forward a hand. "We won't hurt you."

Harry bit him.

Harry watched with dark satisfaction as the werewolf jerked his hand away reflexively, a shattered look in his eyes. Ha. Served him right. Sure, they might not hurt him now, but what they'd done in the past more than made up for their lack of hostile intentions at present.

Remus looked helplessly at Albus, who sighed again as he looked at the wreck that was Harry Potter.

Oh, my boy, what have we done to you? he wondered sadly.

"We just want to take you away from here, Harry," he said calmly, none of his inner grief showing in his eyes or voice. "Back to Hogwarts."

For the first time since they had arrived, Harry showed some signs of life.

"Hogwarts?" he asked wonderingly. It was little more than a croak really. Remus winced.

"Yes, Harry. Hogwarts."

His eyes lost some of the dead look and he burst out into a spate of excited hissing.

Unbeknownst to the two wizards staring at him bemusedly, Harry was not animatedly discussing his prospective return to Hogwarts, but was indulging in a rant of fury at the two men.

"You fucking bastards! You think you can just take me back there after everything you've done? That I can return to Hogwarts and everything will be okay? Fuck that! I'm going to make sure that every one of you gets what you deserve for abandoning and betraying me!"

As Harry was gently led from the prison, his mind was furiously going over all the possibilities.

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Severus swept into the room dreading the sight that he was about to see. He'd heard all about Potter's condition, about how he didn't speak or recognize anyone, about how he'd been so thin and unkempt… The boy's former friends had come away from seeing him almost in hysterics. The Weasley woman and the Granger girl in particular had come away in tears. As for the Weasley boy, who had been the most vociferous of those who had put Potter in prison, he had come away pale and shaking and had allegedly been heard throwing up in the boys toilets afterwards.

Severus was glad at their guilt. Of all those who knew Potter, all his friends and surrogate family, it had been the one man who disliked him who had believed him innocent. Snape might not have liked the boy, but he knew better than to think that he would murder anyone, let alone the Weasley girl. Everyone had known about the way Potter had felt about her, and it was absurd to suppose that he would kill the subject of his silly little crush. But no one had listened to him; after all, he was just the greasy potions master, the ex-Death Eater spy that all of them loved to hate.

And now, Severus had been proved right, and he was about to get his first look at the boy since he had been dragged out of the courtroom in chains.

Snape walked warily into the hospital wing, down to the bed at the end, hidden by a screen to keep nosy students away. Snape pushed it aside and paused, evaluating what he saw.

Potter had been placed in clean pajamas and tucked in among clean, soft sheets. His hair had clearly been washed and combed thoroughly, and possibly trimmed, although it was hard to tell with that bird's nest of hair. A good wash had cleansed the boy of all the Azkaban grime, but nothing hid the unnatural pallor of his sun-deprived skin, or the way it was stretched tight over his bones. The slightly rounded, boyish face of yore was gone, replaced by a thin, angular face missing the usual plumpness of youth. It would probably never return, Severus reflected. He'd seen people in this condition before, and even if they completely recovered they rarely regained the fat tissue in the face that slowly dispersed over time. Personally, he thought that, ill-health aside, he liked Potter's new face; small though the changes were, they nonetheless combined to make him look quite different from his father, which could only be a good thing.

Sensing the scrutiny, Potter's eyes opened, enormous and brilliant in his thin face, and further widening the rift between his appearance and his father's. Snape couldn't help but feel regret at the blankness in the boy's gaze.

"So I hear that you're insane, Potter," he said quietly. There was no response, but Severus hadn't expected one. "My condolences. At least you're spared the tedious stream of repentance that your former friends insist on sending your way."

For a moment, there was a glint of something in the green eyes before it vanished almost instantly, but Snape's sharp eyes caught it anyway. A sharp bubble of hope stirred within him. Perhaps Potter wasn't as far gone as everyone thought, and with time would improve.

"Personally," he continued contemplatively, "I would prefer that you were sane, merely so that I could witness your reaction to the crawling apologies that half the world seems to be making. You always had a quick temper, and it would be interesting to see whether or not you would forgive them."

The green eyes stared vacantly as he got up and prepared to leave.

"No fucking way."

Severus whirled, and his jaw started to drop before he caught it and shut his mouth with a snap. Potter was watching him with a gaze that was perfectly lucid, a slight, crooked smile tilting up one corner of his mouth. The potions master gaped. Then –

"You Slytherin, Potter."

Potter's crooked smirk merely grew.

"Touché."

Snape sat heavily in the chair and glared at him, out of habit.

"You realize that every person who has visited you has been berating themselves for helping to send you insane?"

"Well," the boy replied calmly, and his voice had a slightly rusty note to it, "I thought that perhaps it help would drive home the enormity of their actions."

"It certainly has. Half of them spend all their time in tears. I even have it on good authority that Weasley spent the greater part of the night purging his stomach of its contents."

"Really?" Potter seemed delighted. "Oh, brilliant."

Snape couldn't help the sharp yelp of laughter that escaped him at that.

"What about Dumbledore and Remus?" the boy questioned.